Astra Mk5 5 Door Project (Z18XE)

[mj32]

Hi all,

After bunging a post in the introducing section, thought I should do a little thread incase any one is interested. Maybe this is something different being a MK5 but not a VXR

Hopefully have some time / money to do some things I have been thinking about for far too long after reading threads from Lee / MikeITB and WarrewG and what can be done with the old Z18xe engine.

So as it stands now:

Engine
Standard apart from Dbilas 262deg cams

Interior
Some sound proofing / carpet and crap removed
OMP Design 2 seat
Replaced head unit
3 Gauge dash conversion with Oil temp / Oil pressure / Coolant temp

Exterior
Matte black wrap on roof / door bottoms / arches (covering some bad scratches )
Steinmetz air intakes in front bumper
Eye brows front and rear
Cheap ass grill (but sick of re-painting the V after stone chips)

Chassis
Koni springs (std. sri shocks)
17 x 8 Rota grids in matt bronze
Drilled / grooved discs and EBC Green stuff pads up-front





Will update when I have got the pics sorted out.

[Kev_G]

nice to see something different but i dont like the wheels they look odd being that colour and also small as hell

[coupe22]

as above, nice to see newer vaux's gettin some love tho!

[podaru]

never thought I'd say this but needs more lows
As above the wheels look small...I think the whole vinyl wrap thing makes it look sorta' 4x4-ish
Nice to see mk5's cropping up here makes for a refreshing change, waiting on interior pics

[mj32]

Thanks for the comments,

The wheels have turned out to be a bit marmite and I did take ages thinking about it before buying them - always did like it on the std sri silver 5 spokes. The pics do make them look tiny though i agree there

Plan is to ditch the rusty Koni springs and get some KW Inox coilovers to sort the ride height out - edge away from family car to weekend fun and maybe a track day or 2

[mj32]

So updating with some more older photos....

Went shopping on ebay and bought one of these:


Which turned out to be a crap fit, broken on one hole and drilled all over the place



Adam of Dewismotorsport fame then welds, drills and polishes and returns better than ever :



Then with a bit of time in the garage with more ebay purchases, cardboard, tape measure, some out-sourced laser cutting and lot of swearing we arrived here:





Still got the bottom support bracket to finish - but it's getting there!

[Rent A Spoon]

call me stupid if i'm wrong but am i right in saying supercharger?

[Kev_G]

correct.

[mj32]

So still catching up on old photos and as mentioned before I added a 3 gauge converted dash, which was flocked before fitting. To this was added water temp, oil temp, oil pressure gauges which are un-branded and come with a silver surround matching the SRi dash clocks.



The whole centre console has also been flocked to match and the other parts carbon wrapped to blend in as we had some plain silver, some black, and some sri fakey silver carbon there.

The gauges were tapped into the head using M14 1.5 threaded adaptors - an idea nicked from Lee and others using this engine as the sensors are the furthest point from the oil pump.



for some reason the VX logo on the spark cover came out orange in the photo - but is red

[mj32]

CATCHING UP ON OLD POSTS

Got the new top bracket and the inlet / throttle adaptors today from the laser cutter. May play with these over the weekend

Charger mount is 6mm steel so nice and strong and the adaptors are 4mm aluminium so nice and light....

[mj32]

Thought I would throw a little update here incase anyone is still interested....

Had an aluminium adaptor welded up from the flange I had cut and a bit of 63mm pipe to convert from the Dbilas inlet. Will use a flexi hose to connect this to another alloy pipe down to the cooler eventualy (thanks to Adam - Dewismotorsport):



Also designed and had the lower support bracket cut to mount to a couple of the air-con mount points. It's an odd shape to work around other pipes etc but should support the end enough and allow to mount a tensioner to adjust the belt. The bracket is in 2 pieces so need to find a mobile welder to weld in place.

[mj32]

Been doing some more over the xmas break - next job being some kind of tensioner to improve belt wrap over the charger.

Started with one of these (a VW item)



Cut down the mounting point and drilled a 12mm hole into the charger bracket to lock it into place. The roller part is removable so can look into larger 'rollers' to improve wrap and move belt and tension it if needed.



Seems like the belt could be very close to the lump in the timing cover for the cam position sensor when running the belt over the engine mount. So may need to run the belt under the engine mount and use another tensioner to direct it.

And then got busy with the red wrinkle paint to make all the black / silver / alu. parts look a bit more like one project

[mj32]

Not an exciting update, but.... the Mini Bypass Valve turned up.

Part Number is: 11617568423

Costs around the 60 quid mark.

Picture of it:





So last couple days been experimenting with the intake to the charger. Didn't want to start doing complicated stuff with custom alloy parts, so used a silicone reducer.

A 90mm diamater hose will push right over the intake port and a jubilee clip will then hold in place very tight under the lip. A bit of trimming is needed to shape it around the old PTO plate. As we are sucking through, hope this will be secure enough.



Also pulled the PTO plate off the back and the gears there were not mashed up as in some chargers. Going to remove this and replace with a blanking plate. On ebay a plate for this is best part of £50 ........ so off with a template to the laser cutter, having 5 made out of 4mm alloy.
Should be here next week.

Will the back end need oil though when blanked off? I guess there are no gears to mesh now, but will the oil seals there dry / perish without oil?

Need to check that.

[mj32]

DewisMotorsport sent me a gift

[mj32]

So, after working away from home for a few days - I get back and find these waiting:



Some nice PTO blanking plates which fit like so:



Much tidier. but still got to work out if we need the oil fill hole for that exposed bearing.

[mj32]

So a little update, been working out the outlet from the charger and chopping up some silicone reducers to fit and came up with this to join to the bypass valve: Waiting on the jubilee / Mikalor clips for it.



but will need to trial fit this on the car to get a better idea.

Made up a wiring extension to move the throttle body to the front of the engine bay by splicing some wire into the Dbilas short extension:



still need to do the same for the air meter wiring to!

and then some other bits n bobs arrived in the post



and that brings this up-to-date!

Feel free to comment if anyone thinks I've fecked something up or over-looked anything important!